Archive for August, 2007

So I am going to be attending college, as it turns out. But not at Lake County College (oh sure, now I remember what it’s called). No, I am staying here in Urbana to attend Parkland, with a schedule composed of Drawing I, Japanese I, and Financial Accounting.

…Yeah, no, that last one’s supposed to be there. I mean, I’m experimenting in fields, I might as well experiment, eh? And I like adding numbers, and single, generally repetetive tasks…get into a rhythm, with a system…so yeah. Accounting. We’ll see how that goes.

Also, in similar-but-not-quite-similar financial topics, I have a job! At the Courier Cafe, working the salad bar. And today was my first day of training. There’s a lot of different things to do, a lot more than I might have initially thought. I mean, there’s setting up and maintaining the salad bar, yes, but there’s also preparing a ready stock of salad bar items, and tallying tickets, and ice. Oh my goodness is there ever ICE. I mean, the initial bar requires about 4 buckets of ice alone, never mind the re-icings you have to do periodically over the day, since the stuff, y’know, melts.

Everyone seems nice there so far, so that’s certainly a plus. And the time-tracker thingy? Way better than at JCPenney, lemme tell ‘ya. Here, there’s no punching of buttons, or correcting of times, or nothin’. Just take your card, slip it in the top, and put it back. So. Easy. But there was one…snag. That being, the aromas of the back area made me feel sick. Like, went to sit down for a few minutes sick. Does that even make sense? I mean, you walk in the freezer and you nose is assaulted with CHEESE! Mixed with a kind of mystery vegetable scent. And then I would periodically burp (not necessarily strange, this being me), and I could smell the freezer again.

I apologize if that’s kinda gross — I mean, it feels gross to me just typing it — but it’s true. I eventually…normalized? Something like that, since I stopped feeling queasy eventually. I suspect my not-breathing-through-my-nose technique is once again what aided me. That and making sure to expel the air in my lungs when I accidentally sniffed anything not out by the salad bar. But yeah, hopefully my body will adjust, and it will become a nonissue. (Could even feel my kidneys reacting…)

But! I was shown how to do a lot of stuff, and cut up some romaine lettuce, cantaloupes, and pineapples, as well as ‘prepared’ iceburg lettuce. Which involves slamming them on the counter. Y’know, to get rid of the core. Doesn’t everybody know that?

Anywho, another big thing that happened was that Dad visited! Of course, I had forgotten to call him the day before to warn him of my impending job training today (9AM to 3PM), so he ended up waiting around town for 2 hours. Aiyee. Thankfully I caught him, and we went out for lunch, followed by a walk around Parkland and going to see The Simpsons’ Movie. Which was excellent, in my opinion.